"This is a way to prevent any further hazards due to the haze arising from fires in future by launching a fire alertness village program in Nanga Tayap," Cornelis stated after the launch of the program here on Thursday.
To support its performance, we must build several water reservoirs or canals to supply water to extinguish the fire.
Cornelis suggested that all parties need to preserve and maintain the forests as part of the anticipatory measures to counter the extreme climatic variations.
"Meanwhile, plantation owners are obliged to protect their areas from fire similar to what was done by Sinarmas, so we laud this practice, and it should be followed by the other palm oil plantation owners," Cornelis affirmed.
Meanwhile, CEO of PT Smart Tbk plantation for Kalimantan area Susanto noted that to face the 2016 drought, PT SMART Tbk, a subsidiary of Golden-Agri Resources (GAR), had launched the Fire Alertness Village program for empowering the local communities on ways to prevent fires with the full support of the local governments and other institutions.
Susanto also remarked that as part of the first phase, the program will be implemented in eight villages in Nanga Tayap sub-district, while the program will be carried out in nine other villages in Jambi province in April 2016.
Everyone needs to understand the hazards of land and forest fires, especially for women, children, and the elderly, and therefore, the involvement of the community is crucial as the people can be protected through early detection and fire management by taking immediate action.
"The program is planned to be implemented for a period of three years, which will be supported by information dissemination activities in the community and will be evaluated every year by the local governments and other relevant institutions to ensure its effectiveness as a manifestation of our support to the governments program to make Indonesia free from land and forest fires," Susanto emphasized.
Through the Fire Alertness Village program, the villagers will be trained and provided fire extinguishing tools. Moreover, incentives through the companys Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) fund will also be given to the village that implemented the best forest fire prevention measures.
As many as 15 villagers from the eight listed villages will be selected and trained as volunteers for the program.
All volunteers will be trained and supported in monitoring fires effectively and delivering information quickly to the response team, either by electronic mail or short messages via mobile phones.
The monitoring of hotspots is also done through the use of drones, and a satellite-based hotspot monitoring system will also used to forward the hotspot data analysis result to every fire alertness village command post.
In addition, monitoring activities will also include the use of participatory mapping techniques, and the communities will be encouraged to actively map out their village boundaries and plan the use of land in their territories.
This map will help people to clearly demarcate the duties and responsibilities in preventing and handling fires at the village and inter-village level, Susanto noted.
The Fire Alertness Village program also offers alternative solutions to plantation owners without the need to set fire to the area, including providing agricultural training in the communal plantation area agreed by the community, using environmentally friendly fertilizers, and improving water management, among others.
Besides launching the Fire Alertness Village program, PT SMART Tbk has also prepared emergency response personnel, more than 20 types of firefighting equipment, and several medical personnel, Susanto noted.
Ketapang sub-district chief Martin Rantan stated that the Ketapang district government was committed to preventing land and forest fires, and hence, each village has been urged to ready fire extinguishing tools using the village allocation fund.
"We will appoint a village team leader, and there are shared concerns that the efforts to prevent forest fires will be more effective in the dry season. Hopefully, in 2016, no more hotspots will be detected in Ketapang with the implementation of the Fire Alertness Village program," Martin added.
Reporting by Andi Lala
EDITED BY INE
(T.A050/B/KR-BSR/F001)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
Copyright © ANTARA 2016
